Cycling 1:10:00 [3]
Albion Hills Fat Bike Festival.
Bash and I tried the rental fat bikes for a bit of tootling around. The real fat bikes ride the breakable crust off-trail that stymied my 'bent, but the trails were mostly hardpacked.
I switched to my 'bent. I hadn't wanted to ask if I could do the race as I had no idea how I'd compare to the fat bikes, or whether I'd be allowed. The RD let me chase after the mid-pack riders on the 20K race once the hardcore riders had done lap 1 and the pack spread out. I was surprised to be passing them fairly easily on the doubletrack. I managed to hold my own on the singletrack sections, but on 2 corners I had to take a wider line and got stuck in soft snow, so I had to get off and push for a few seconds. One guy passed me there, and another passed me in a softer section, but on the whole I'd say I would have had no problem doing the 20k race in these conditions. Things may have been different if I hit a traffic jam at the first single track, but it seems the fat bike riders are content to chug along sanely and I'd be fine.
Next I got to demo an all-carbon fatty, which was very nice. It cruised the trails very easily. I got it bogged down off-trail, but when I got off I was up to my knees in crusty swamp, so that's fair enough.
Fun day out! Didn't really keep track of the time.